Synchronicity, UMEs, and an Event that Involved Jung’s Scarab Beetle Story

I first realized that the term, synchronicity, described some of my experiences when I saw it on an online site about spirituality. For years I’d been searching for information to help me understand events I had been experiencing, and I realized a number of them fit that description.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, someone (I think it was Mirror) posted a link to information about Carl Jung and his Scarab Beetle experience, which I hadn’t heard.

I had read parts of Jung’s book, The Basic Writings of CG Jung, a year or two before but I didn’t read it completely because it didn’t answer the questions I had at the time. Then in 2014, I was led to some incredible information related to his ideas about our personalities and found answers to questions I had about some of the popular spiritual concepts that I share in my e-book Critical Revelations, but I didn’t know that Jung had experienced synchronicity and was actually the person who coined the term.

About a month ago after connecting on Facebook and reading Critical Revelations, Jesse T. began to join a number of our conversations, and while I have experienced many events in small groups I am still surprised to see that a couple of events have occurred between the three of us within the past few weeks.

The story below is the most recent event and I am astounded that it revolved around Jung’s Scarab Beetle story. (You can find the conversation on my Facebook profile on March 30, 2016.)

I had posted a quote from Critical Revelations that said:

“For most of my life I didn’t think anyone would ever be able to say they knew without any doubt that God existed. Then, I found myself in a place I never dreamed could be possible—I was trying to understand experiences that were so remarkable there couldn’t be any other explanation.”

A friend of Jesse’s named Doug made a comment which included, “Extraordinary claims require Extraordinary evidence.”

I replied, “I have collected extraordinary evidence over the past 15+ years. I am just getting started sharing it. I have example after example.”

Jesse commented next with some information about Carl Jung, including the fact that Jung thought ancient cultures had important answers (including the Egyptians, Mayans, etc.), and that Jung believed that science needed to examine this further.

I went to get a link to Jung’s Scarab Beetle story since I’d just heard about it and thought it was a great example of one of these extraordinary events. The first time I looked for it I read the Wikipedia version, but I decided to just click the first option (http://jungcurrents.com/synchronicity-the-golden-scarab-beetle).

I scrolled down the page and I was stunned by what I saw.

Under a subheading of “The Mythology of the Scarab Beetle,” it said:

“Khepera is a form of the sun-god Re. Khepera was specifically the god of the rising sun. He was self-produced and usually depicted as a human with a beetle on his head, or sometimes with the beetle as his head. His name comes from the Egyptian word, kheprer or “to become.”

In a couple of other recent conversations, I’d started talking about the relationship of the phenomenal events my daughters and I had been experiencing to the process of becoming:

Twitter (March 12): .@Dreamdancer1111 We are in the process of becoming. No one would take the steps needed to grow if our lives were perfect.

Disqus, “Now is Then” (Mar 26/27): I have been able to see that the events have simply been necessary for me to become who I am, who I love being, and for my daughters to become who they are becoming.

Jung’s scarab beetle is directly connected to a mythological story from ancient Egypt that is specifically about becoming, which Jesse just happened to mention in the conversation. And I’d recently started to talk about becoming because it is something that was becoming more and more evident in the events I’d been experiencing. (I stopped working on my memoir to write Critical Revelations because I felt like it was important to share that information first. My memoir includes stories about my life path and how the things that are happening relate to who my daughters and I have become/are becoming.)

I was amazed to see that I chose a link that brought everything together. It was also amazing to see how quickly things progressed. I didn’t have to pick pieces out of a long conversation.

What I also realized is that while there was synchronicity in the act of choosing that post within about an hour of the time Jesse posted his information, my posts about becoming had occurred days or weeks before. So it wasn’t exactly like the event Jung experienced where the woman was telling him about her dream and the scarab beetle appeared.

Another unusual thing that has occurred a number of times is that I have been compelled to follow strong feelings. That is what happened with Critical Revelations. After a brief conversation one day, I felt like I needed to go straight to the library, but I didn’t find exactly what I was looking for, so I picked up a few books that looked interesting, and they led me to the information I share in Critical Revelations. So I have been describing some of the synchronous or interconnected phenomenon as unique, meaningful experiences or events. (I talk more about this in my blog post, “Our Favorite Things Are More Important Than Most People Realize.”)

As I thought about sharing this story, I felt like I needed an easier way to say that, and after a little while, I thought, okay, I’ll just use the acronym, UME. As I thought about it a little more, I realized I could pronounce it, You-Me, and I love the fact that the phonetic meaning ties in the idea that these experiences often involve a couple of people.

So while this event included synchronicity, it is actually more clearly defined as a UME.*

*I also like the phrase, “synchronous, interconnected phenomenon or event,” so a couple of other options are SIP or SIE, and I like the fact that phonetically the second one is “see,” so that is a possibility as well, but I think the most important aspects of what I am experiencing are how meaningful these events are and how unique they are to me and the people who are with me, so I still prefer UME.

4 Responses to Synchronicity, UMEs, and an Event that Involved Jung’s Scarab Beetle Story

I find it fascinating as an infp that believes my relationship with God is purely relationship and not based on religion. I do have moments of clear direction that definitely coming from an outside source. God advising me to go somewhere or to not go somewhere. Usually it all becomes clear once I obey. An “ah ha moment” that says..this is why I asked you to do this.

I’m so glad we’ve connected! I love hearing about other people’s experiences and think the world needs to hear more about them.

I was astonished to find that there was so much information in the Myers-Briggs test questions that helped me understand the concepts being shared as the ultimate truth in spiritual communities. I am an INTP and my experiences, which have primarily involved very active mental processes, have pushed me to study and analyze ideas about God and they keep leading me to the ideas developed by Carl Jung.

Being directed is among the kinds of events I’ve experienced so I describe them as a UME, but they have also included remarkable synchronicity! Do you write about your life path or your experiences?

Beautiful, Ceejae.
Glad to connect with you here. Been seeing your posts in the Synchronicity group.
INFP, myself. Wondering if the IN/P combination supports more introspection/”listening” in order to hear guidance and to see thematic connections.

Thank you for your kind comment, and sorry for the delay getting back to you! Love hearing that you are interested in Myers-Briggs. I found my way to it in 2014, by chance.

One afternoon, I felt compelled to go to the library. I was looking for an answer to a vague question. I was sure I would recognize it when I saw it. Didn’t find it that day, but got a collection of books anyway, and they led me to some remarkable information that enabled me to understand the foundations of some of the concepts in the spiritual realm. So I wrote a book about it called Critical Revelations in the Realm of Contemporary Spirituality.

And given that I would say, yes, to your thought above. Myers-Briggs explains a lot about our culture and belief systems that are dominating all kinds of thinking right now. It is estimated that 75% of the population are Sensors. So our culture revolves around things we can see, hear, touch, eat, etc. Aspects of the body. Focus on things like the “present moment.” But I don’t. I spend my days with monotone squiggles on paper (mostly non-fiction books :–)) eating the same food day after day, wearing the same clothes, etc.

And as I compared a number of unusual events I have been experiencing since 98 with the beliefs that are considered core spiritual concepts, what I have been experiencing doesn’t fit, so I have been pushing forward trying to understand all of it. Critical Revelation explains some and I am back to working on a memoir that I was working on before the vague thought drove me to write that instead.

I would love to hear more about your experiences, how you’ve reached the place where you are now. Do you have a blog? I will look forward to hearing back from you!